1 Porter
The 'Sir' says it all.
'You are my superior.
Is that correct, sir? '
Deference sharpens
the scalpel of irony.
'Are these your drugs, sir? '
And you tug fore-lock:
in this feast, the servants rule.
'I'll tell the Dean, sir'.
2 Augean
Donegal jacket
in shreds; trousers food-stippled;
whiff of Glenfiddich.
Police pounce. They charge him -
thunderstruck - with vagrancy.
Down at St.Aldates
they blanch; blush; blurt 'Please
accept our apologies,
Professor Woodgate'.
3 Head Of Buttery
A slur shadows him,
his student patrons' unkind
whisper: 'He's simple'.
But power devolves.
Diners nearest him (losers
in the race for seats)
endure a stream-of-
consciousness jeremiad
on his terms of work.
4 Tristan
In ashen silence
he mans the till at Turl Street's
Classical Bookshop.
A car hit his girl
on the bridge: she died at the
scene, wearing his ring.
He nurses her candle;
sentinel of manuscripts'
sweet, musky echo
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem